ERC Starting Grant · Utrecht University
Fairness in the content creation economy.
We're an academic research team studying fairness in the content creation economy, particularly advertising & influencer marketing.
We share free, scientific knowledge on regulation, legal compliance and public policy using insights and methods from law, computer science and media studies. Funded by the European Research Council through a Starting Grant.
Research, out in the open
Publications
Here you can find all the publications written by the project members, affiliates and other collaborators.
Project events
The project hosts a series of workshops, conferences, webinars, and other events, aimed at discussing and disseminating our research themes and outputs.
Public policy
The project aims to provide academic evidence to policy-makers and self-regulators. This is an archive of all our engagement with such stakeholders.
Community engagement
An overview of all the events our project's researchers participate in as a form of engaging with the academic communities in media studies, law and computer science.
Influencer Law Clinic
Every year, we organize a research-driven short course at Utrecht University, where students from the Law & Technology LLM programme can work on tasks related to the project.
In the media
An overview of all the media commentary relating to the topics covered in the project.
Multimedia content
Recordings of our webinars and talks, including the Digital Services Act for media scholars series.
Hashtag
HustleElgar · 2025
The Hashtag Hustle
An open access edited book on content creation as a form of labour: working conditions, worker protection, and the status of the working relationship. It comes with three webinars in which invited discussants respond to the chapters.
Latest from the blog
Influencers & elections: an Eastern European campaign blueprint
#humanadsBy Catalina Goanta
Giveaways on social media: are they effective?
#humanadsBy Anaya Jethani
Can the right to be forgotten conflict with the public's right to information?
#guestpostBy Veronika Hloušková
Hashtag health: how influencers sharing medical information are regulated in the European Union
#guestpostBy Lily Mccubbin
The regulation of digital political advertising
#guestpostBy Roël Remak
Sorted by date, newest first. No algorithm, no engagement bait.
Law, computer science and media studies
We're a multidisciplinary team of researchers based at Utrecht University (Netherlands) and funded by the European Research Council through an ERC Starting Grant managed by Associate Professor Catalina Goanta (Principal Investigator), with affiliate researchers from Maastricht University (Netherlands) and Sheffield University (UK), as well as an advisory board that includes world-renowned experts in digital governance.
Creators, regulators, journalists, researchers: we welcome all outreach!
For all other inquiries, contact the Principal Investigator.